Spain: Jihad Continues

The Muslim Reconquest of Spain

Conquest through immigration

(Gatestone Institute)  -  Ten members of an Islamic State jihadi cell have been sentenced to combined prison terms of nearly 100 years for a plot to bomb landmarks and behead infidels in Barcelona.

The cell, composed of five Moroccans, four Spaniards and a Brazilian, was separate to and independent of the jihadi group that killed 16 people in Barcelona and nearby Cambrils in August 2017.

The case shows that Spain continues to be a prime target for jihadis, many of whom are striving to reconquer al-Andalus, the Arabic name given to those parts of Spain, Portugal and France occupied by Muslim conquerors (also known as the Moors) from 711 to 1492. Many jihadis believe that territories Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquest of Spain still belong to the realm of Islam, and that Sharia law requires them to re-establish Muslim rule there.

The court heard how the jihadi cell — called "Islamic Fraternity, Group for Preaching Jihad" — was created in 2014 at a mosque in Terrassa, a city located 30 kilometers from Barcelona, with the objective of creating a global Islamic Caliphate.

Prosecutors said the cell's "sole purpose and motive was to fulfill and serve the objectives of the Islamic State and to carry out, at any time, an attack on institutions such as the police, banks or Jewish interests."

The cell's leaders — Antonio Sáez Martínez (a Spanish convert to Islam also known as "Ali the Hairdresser") and Lahcen Zamzami and Rida Hazem, both of Moroccan nationality — reportedly believed they could reach paradise "by attacking institutions, entities, organisms and symbols of Western culture."

The group had originally intended to join the Islamic State in Syria, but after three members were arrested at the Bulgarian border with Turkey, its efforts were refocused on Spain.

The 98-page court ruling describes the so-called Operación Caronte (in Greek mythology, the ferryman of Hades), in which Spanish and Catalan counter-terrorism police meticulously tracked and surveilled the cell members, some of whom were observed taking photographs of Barcelona's most emblematic locations, including train stations, luxury hotels, shopping malls and police stations, as well as the Catalan parliament.

Sáez Martínez also plotted to kidnap random members of the public, and, emulating the Islamic State, dress them in orange jumpsuits and behead them. The crime was to be filmed and shared on social media.

During police raids, police found explosives, and vast amounts of literature on jihad and bomb-making, as well as on European terror groups. These included the Basque separatist group ETA and Germany's far-left Red Army Faction.

The cell's three ringleaders were each sentenced to 12 years in prison, while the other seven cell members were each sentenced to terms between seven and eight years.

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